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Droughts/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are hiking on a high hill in a desert area. Moby leads the way, smiling. Tim follows, obviously hot and tired. TIM: So thirsty. Need a drink. Must find… Moby stops walking. Tim catches up to him. Moby holds out a water bottle. TIM: You've had water this whole time? MOBY: Beep. Moby smiles. Tim grabs the water bottle and drinks until it is empty. TIM: Then why are we looking for a lake? MOBY: Beep. A plate on Moby's chest opens. He reaches inside himself, pulls out a full-sized sailboat, and sets it on the ground. TIM: Okay. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, the news says my state's in a drought. But water still comes out of the faucet, and it still rains. So, what is a drought? From, Doris. Great question, Doris. Water is probably our most valuable natural resource. You can't live without it for more than a few days. An animation shows a glass of water. It is depicted as radiant to symbolize its value. TIM: And as a society, we depend on it for sanitation, agriculture, and dozens of other uses. Images show the glass, a toilet being flushed, a farmer's crops, and a dishwasher filled with dishes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The water from your faucet might come from a lake, a river, underground, or some combination. An animation appears of a town, a farm, and a river running into a lake. Different parts of the image highlight to illustrate Tim's explanation. TIM: This is your local water supply. It's fed by precipitation: rain, and snow. A cloud appears and rains into the lake. TIM: It's depleted by people, as well as natural processes. An animation shows water going from the water sources to the town and the farm. TIM: Like evaporation, when liquid water turns to gas. An animation shows water evaporating from the lake into the air. TIM: When there's more water going out than coming in, that's a drought. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It can last anywhere from months to years. The longer it goes on, the more the local water supply drops. An animation shows a river and a lake with low water levels. Calendar pages flip to illustrate the passage of time. TIM: As long as there's some left, you may not notice that you're in a drought. An animation shows two boys bathing in a bathtub full of suds. The bathtub faucet is running. The boys are smiling with their arms raised. One holds a rubber ducky. TIM: But as the water supply dwindles, it begins to have an impact. Serious droughts disrupt food production and throw ecosystems out of whack. An animation shows a farmer standing in his cornfield. He is holding a pitchfork. The corn withers, and the farmer becomes worried. TIM: In poorer nations, they put millions of lives in danger. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Some droughts are caused by an increase in demand. Like when an area's population rises. A supply that was adequate for a million people might not be enough for five million. Overuse can be a problem, too. An animation shows a small town next to a river and lake. High-rises and skyscrapers begin to appear in the town. The water supply begins to dry up. TIM: Industry and large-scale farming can easily deplete water supplies. Farms and factories start popping up near the city. The water levels of the river and lake become even lower. TIM: But most droughts are brought on by natural variations in the weather. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Every place gets months or even years that are drier than usual. If precipitation drops off for a season or more, the water supply can go down. An animation shows flipping calendar pages. Each month has a picture of the same river and lake. As the year progresses, the river and lake in the pictures become drier. TIM: That's why most droughts are normal, cyclical events. Only a run of nice, wet weather can end them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's not just about rain. Some places depend on mountain snow for their water supply. The area below receives a steady flow of water from the snowmelt. An animation shows rain falling into a lake and snow falling onto the tops of mountains. Water from melted snow flows into a river, which runs into the lake. TIM: So a run of dry winters can be disastrous. An animation shows snow disappearing from the tops of mountains. TIM: That's what's been happening in California lately. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Normally, snow atop the Sierra Nevadas provides the state with one-third of its water. But warmer temperatures have led to more rain than snow. An animation shows snow clouds over the Sierra Nevadas being replaced by rainclouds. The snowcaps disappear as the rain continues. TIM: So even though there's precipitation, the water supply isn't as reliable as it used to be. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Predicting rain, snow, and temperature is as hard as, well, predicting the weather. An animation shows a weather forecaster on television. There are several rainclouds on a weather map of the southwest United States. Text on the television screen reads: Raining Today. TIM: We can barely get the seven-day forecast right. So anticipating droughts is almost impossible. Tim looks away from the weather forecast and looks out the window. Moby is in the yard, stretched out on a lawn chair and sipping lemonade under the sun. TIM: At best, meteorologists can see signs a few weeks in advance. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Most American cities can handle water shortages. An animation shows homes in a city and the water supply system running underneath them. TIM: We might have to take quicker showers, water our lawns less, or use more efficient appliances. An animation shows Tim in the shower. A second animation shows a lawn sprinkler spraying water. TIM: But in certain regions, a drought can escalate into a natural disaster. An image shows a dead fish in a dried-up lake bed. TIM: Just like a flood, hurricane, or tornado. Images of a flood, hurricane, and tornado join the image of the dried-up lake bed. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Agricultural areas tend to be hit the hardest. As the water supply drops, it's a lot harder to raise healthy crops and livestock. An animation shows a farmer standing in his cornfield. The corn plants are withered, and a very skinny cow walks up to him. The cow moos. TIM: That leads to a downward spiral of financial troubles. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Without enough produce to sell, farms often have to shut down. The farmer puts up a sign. Text on the sign reads: For Sale. TIM: And businesses that depend on them lose income, too. An animation illustrates the farmer's inability to do business with other farmers, stores, restaurants, and banks. Everyone in the animation looks sad. TIM: American farmers have been struggling with these problems for years. For poorer nations, droughts can mean much worse than lost jobs. MOBY: Beep. TIM: In these places, they might not have the money to build dams and other big water-saving projects. An image shows a young man tending livestock. TIM: So when the dry years come, it hits them fast and hard. An image shows the young man's livestock dead, lying on the dry ground. TIM: In areas where people grow their own food, droughts can lead to famine. There's not enough to go around, and people die of starvation. An image shows a woman handing out rice. The line for the rice is very long. TIM: And with clean water in short supply, deadly diseases skyrocket. An image shows women gathering water from a pond. Each is scooping the water with a glass into a larger container. TIM: In Africa, persistent droughts have killed tens of millions. A map of Africa shows areas where water is scarce. Those areas are by far the majority of the continent. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Conservation helps a bit and is never a bad thing. That's why we should avoid running faucets and other ways of wasting water. An animation shows a lawn sprinkler spraying water on a patch of grass. Other lawn sprinklers appear. Then the animation reveals that the sprinklers are watering a golf course in a dry, desert-like area. TIM: More crucially, farms need to convert to more efficient systems. An image shows a farmland irrigation system. It is designed to waste as little water as possible by moving water very close to a plant's roots. TIM: Growing our food uses up way more water than things like showers and toilets. And as a society, we need to stop putting so much carbon in the atmosphere. Cars, cows, factories, deforestation. They all contribute to rising temperatures. An animation of a spinning Earth illustrates the factors Tim names, showing that they occur in many parts of the globe. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yup. I'm talking about global warming. The animation glows red. TIM: Increased heat doesn't just scorch crops and dry out rivers. It changes weather patterns around the world. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Ocean temperatures play a major role in determining the weather. As they rise and fall, they shift the position of the jet stream. These are powerful winds that carry storm systems around the planet. An animation of Earth shows the course of the jet stream as it circles around the northern hemisphere. TIM: In the Pacific, warmer water along the equator pushes the jet stream south. An animation shows the jet stream flowing east, over the southwestern part of the United States. A raining cloud appears over the middle part of California. TIM: Colder water along the equator does the opposite. A second animation joins the first. This one shows the jet stream flowing east, but at a more northern latitude than before. A raining cloud appears north of California, over the state of Oregon. TIM: Meteorologists call these alternating conditions El Niño and La Niña. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The back-and-forth cycle is normal, but global warming has made the temperature shifts deeper and more erratic. More rainclouds join the two animations. The first shows the jet stream farther south than before, and the second shows the jet stream farther north than before. TIM: People in the Southwest can't tell if they should prepare for drought or torrential floods. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The climate change connection doesn't stop there. Hotter, drier seasons increase the chances of wildfires, and those throw even more carbon into the atmosphere. The earlier animation of the spinning world returns, with a new animation of a wildfire added to the animations of a cow, a car, and a factory. Earth's glow increases. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yep, it's a vicious cycle. TIM: Now you know why I'm always rambling on about global warming. You don't by any chance have an umbrella? MOBY: Beep. Tim and Moby are climbing the same hill as they were earlier. It is now raining hard. A hole opens at the top of Moby's head. An umbrella comes out and protects him from the rain. Tim is still getting soaked. TIM: Eh. A little rain never hurt anyone. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts